Those anime characters whose brave sacrifice for the entertainment of the teeming multitudes of anime fans proved most memorable, moving or simply plain heartbreaking have been memorialised in this most mortifying of rankings.

BS how the top one was of a barely established character. 3rd episode and some moderately likable dies and they’re no.1? What about Wolfwood from Trigun? He’s not even there at all.

Shirley Fenette was a more saddening death than Tomoe Mami.

Lelouch was fucking heartbreaking that he put in all that effort to in the end sacrifice himself and no one know it was part of his plan. Even Suzaku’s false KIA and gravestone is more saddening than this #1.

What about the Gilboa Sant who was accidently shot by Banagher Links during his second fight with Full Frontal. Poor guy left a family behing and his kid already hated the Earth Federation. Tough he was ordered to protect Frontal still no one expected he’d die by Banaghers hands.

In all fairness, the second time he dies is particularly noteworthy, both for the huge impact it leaves on Goku (turning Super Saiyan for the first time… yeah, that’s sorta important, right?), and because, at this point in the series, nobody (neither the characters nor the viewers of the time period who weren’t spoiled by the manga) has yet to know that the Namek Dragon Balls allow multiple resurrections. It is assumed that, once you die a second time, that’s it.

For that matter, a lot of people make the assumption that death is cheap in Dragon Ball, but if you follow the series from the beginning, that’s really not the case (well, you might make an exception with the Buu arc). To begin with, the idea of using a wish to bring back someone from the dead never even came up until the Red Ribbon arc. The second time an attempt to revive dead characters is made, King Piccolo kills Shenlong. And then when you get to Z, Goku brings up the aforementioned limitation of the same wish not being granted twice, you have Piccolo dieing and needing to be brought back with a set of Dragon Balls from another planet (which in itself was on the verge of being wiped out), Piccolo later fusing with Kami… hell, half of the story arcs revolve around the characters trying to retrieve the balls to make the resurrection wish in the first place. Of course, things work out fine in the end, but if you haven’t been spoiled (unfortunately, nearly everyone has been by this point… I doubt my spoiler warning for this post even serves a purpose, but I left it there just in case), then the course of events in the Dragon Ball series is actually quite dire most of the time.

well, she might be missing because she shares her death scene with Kyouko. Though, if you’re talking about her scene in the final episode after Madoka makes her wish (or even her “Hontou baka” moment which, by technicality, resulted in a physical corpse), then I wouldn’t know either.

She emerges for her deepest despair and contacts the soul of her mother and kicks total butt on the super-solendoid Eva only to have them resurrected and eat her ALIVE. I will never forget her final screams.

Gai’s death was unique.
A sudden, mundane, wrong place and wrong time death. All other death had some purpose either as a plot point(cannon fodder to emphasize enemy strength, witches come from puellas) or as a attribute of the character (sacrificial death). His death afterward had an affect but the death it self was like falling of the stairs and breaking your neck.

Yeah, Gai’s death, even though it robbed the show of an entertaining and likable character, became such a huge part of Akito’s development, and his death along with his doppelganger Tsukumo’s really drove home the hidden point of the series–in war there is no ‘pure evil’, just competing agendas that are both equally capable of it, and those you think are your allies won’t hesitate to betray you if they think you’re no longer useful to them.

Then the movie came along and basically the point of it was that life sucks and other people will always take advantage of you and fuck up your life for their own benefit if they can.

Hiroko’s death….eh, now that I think about it, you’re right. That was kinda sad. Wolfwood should definitely be up there. And yea there are a few Gundam pilots that should as well like Triez, Katz, Emma, Chan, Puru (and Puru two),

Also think Kamina’s death was more felt than Lockon’s but eh, what do we foreigners know?

Honored that Hughes and Ace are in the list.
Too much Another though.
Just as Higurashi…
And Krilin dies just as many times as Goku…
Oh wait… These are lists of Sankaku, then of course do the list suck!

Honestly if your going to make a list like this understand how the story of the anime is affected as a result of the death…yes I know this is in essence a short term memory popularity contest like the VAST majority of rankings but imagine if its done to any degree of accuracy whatsoever…My thoughts on a selection of these choices.

1. Mami – Certainly a surprise considering the character she was up until that point, and yet the other characters got over her death oddly fast and the story never really touched upon it again

3./5. Nagisa/Ushio – As far as I’m concerned the only ones that gave me actual tears when I witnessed them because it portrayed a worst case scenario you never expected (Nagisa) nor wanted (Ushio)

8. Kaworu Nagisa – By far the most artistic death on this list, a 30-45 second still image (it sure seemed longer but again that was the point) that portrayed the absolute torment Shinji felt leading up to his decision

9. Maes Hughes – The death itself wasn’t what got me to be honest…it was the funeral when his daughter simply did not understand why her father was in a wooden box and would not come out of it…I busted out the tears on that one. Hell Nina’s death not on this list gave similar impact (as least in the first series anyways)

10. Kyouko Sakura – See #1…seriously this made even LESS impact then Mami’s death

15. Kamina – If story impact was a deciding factor of this list (*chuckle*) then this death needs to be towards the top, maybe not #1, but damn close. Gurren Lagann AS A SERIES, especially one that Just. Did. Not. Give. A. Shit. About how badass it conducted itself gave not only gut wrenching torment to the series…but purpose and meaning as well. In essence, for the story to continue to exist in a meaningful way, Kamina HAD to die. Didn’t really matter how (Although the more badass the better of course), but it was necessary for the story to continue to its conclusion. Now I can understand how part 2 of the series may have fell off from this meaning, but honestly what became of the story from that point on was nearly all rooted in Kamina’s sacrifice.

18. Krilin – I’m not going the route of everyone else in this thread because, although he dies multiple times and is bought back each time (yes I get that), his FIRST death on Namic is the catalyst that makes Dragonball Z what it is going forward. The foreshadowing of the Ascended Saiyan by Vegeta (who’s sacrifice against Fat Buu I would personally put on this list somewhere) was the thought point of everyone watching the series, what it would mean?, what impact would it make? Then Krilin dies, i’ll admit rather pathetically, to Freeza. Goku, upon seeing his close friend die, the first he truly witnessed first hand, put him into a rage, one so severe the power that was dormant deep inside all saiyan finally became unleashed in the form of the Super Saiyan. Without Krilin’s death, Super Saiyan possibly may not have existed in a physical form and remained legend and Goku, despite his efforts en route to Namic, may not have been able to defeat Freeza. So the death was necessary for the story to move forward.

20. Otonashi Yuzuru – Yeah his death blew, more then anyone else’s in angel beats, even yurippe’s.

The rest of the list I either never saw (oh well know they die now lol) or don’t have a comment for. But this is my opinion on a few of them at the very least.

Yeah, that poor girl was really trying her damnedest, and you’re constantly left with some sliver of hope that she’ll survive, especially when Yukito friggin’ sacrifices himself. The resurrection curse is implied to have been broken at least, but poor Misuzu in her current life was doomed, going out in easily one the most heart-rending scenes Key’s created to date. And yet, at the same time, it was very heartwarming and meaningful, because she finally found happiness and left an impact on Haruko.

Nagisa… well, she’s just sick for the hell of it, Key apparently abusing the sickly girl trope for third or fourth time (and I’m just looking at the KyoAni adaptions; I haven’t a clue how many times they’ve done it in ONE and other early Visual Novels). Combine that with not being able to reach a hospital when she goes into labor, and it’s like it couldn’t be any more obvious what was coming. Ushio’s, at least, isn’t quite as expected, but it comes right the fuck out of nowhere and doesn’t seem to have any real reason for occurring aside from all that stuff from the future world (which basically implied that karma’s just trying to screw with Tomoya). The reset button only lessons the impact a hundred-fold.

I think the reason why Mami’s death top the list is cause it was sudden and the turning point that made the series into what it is. No one expected the series to be depressing and dark, and no one certainly didn’t expect one of the main cast to die only at episode 3. I whole heartily agrees here.

I’m so surprised to see Dragonball Z in this list. Normally these lists focus on new anime only. Also, I’m not sure it was all that sad, since you knew there were dragon balls to wish him back when it happened.

I dunno why Mami’s death is number 1, it was honestly a stupid death, and she kinda had it coming for not paying attention to her surroundings, I didn’t shed any tears or care when she died, I thought the bitch deserved it during that fight for messing around to much.

Mami’s death rated higher than Ushio and Nagisa? Omg get that shit outa here, she had a funny death for being stupid enough. She could have fight back but just stared at the damn thing till it ate her head off.

Some of these made me gag others cry. weird list. for man cry though ied go Nagisa and ushio then Kamina. I hate how Japanese otaku forget stuff that happen like more then one year ago. like julia in Bebop and wolfwood in Trigun

Though Krilin i was like WTF is that on here now looking back when i was a kid i was totaly like NOOOOOO! Freeza gotta DIE!

Well, on the first dragon ball series, before Z, Krillin’s death was quite something. It was the first death of a main character, and it came out of nowhere. That scene was quite something, and Goku’s reaction was heartbreaking. Of course, in Z death turned into a joke, but still, krilling first death deserves that place in the ranking…

I think the reason for Krillin being there is that when he was killed in DBZ he had already been revived once (the first dragon’s maximum) and therefore was considered permanently dead for quite some time before he was revived on Namek by their dragon, iirc.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one in that situation, so I’m not sure why Krillin’s was the most “heartrending.”

the only notable krillin deaths were in DB when he goes back to the Martial arts tournament grounds to get something and gets killed by one of Picolos servants and the one in Namek when he gets killed by freeza making songoku angry eventually transforming into super sayan, so being dbz they are talkin about, maybe its that one

Keep in mind that 18 wasn’t fully mechanical. She even explains it after Krillin tried to wish for her to be fully human. She was human first, by Dr. Gero turned her into an android. So even if 18 died, she would’ve been able to be revived because she is human.

Im not sure if at that time we knew that we could resurrect him a second time. As the Earth dragon was a 1 time thing. Also it wanst till later he was turned into a kinda gag char, Before he was Gokus best friend. At the end of Z he is said to be the strongest human. (tho in context as we never know)

There are a lot of great deaths here and some I’ve never seen but I will always remember feeling so sad at the end of final fantasy unlimited when Kaze, Makenshi, Kupo and Luo give their lives to kill the count.

Buddy, denial is not just a river in Egypt. Spike collapsed from mortal wounds in front of scores of henchman that were trying to kill him. He just killed their boss. They’re either going to put bullets in his brain or let him bleed out.

Kaminas Death was the coolest death ever in History of Shounen Anime, because he didn’t die on the spot but in a really cool pose after a some manly last words.

Where the heck are the memorable deaths from back then,by the way? Like Mathilda or Lala from Gundam or Okita Kanchou or Dommel from Uchuu Senkan Yamato? I don’t think anyone of the voters did even take a glimpse on these precious Jewels from the past.Even the newer anime from the 90s are not in the ranking… And what about the sad deaths from animals, like Patrasche(Flanders no Inu) or Baa-chan(Haha wo tazunete sanzenri), is there an extra rating for them?

Spike is dead. If they added more episodes, it would be like the movie: something that happens during the time that the original series was taking place. The Shaman-guy told Jet that Spike was going to die — that his star was going to fade out — and it did.

If you want to keep believing he’s still alive despite all the internal evidence that shows he’s not, that’s certainly your business. But the very fact that no new episodes have been made (and wont be) should make it pretty clear that he’s gone.

Here here. Makoto Itou was a douche who got dick-happy after finally getting some pussy from Sekai. I’m not going as far to say that “he deserved to die”, like some people do, but I didn’t really feel upset at all about him getting stabbed.

And I’m sorry, even though I was very saddened by my favorite and hottest puella magi getting decapitated out of nowhere (I was more shocked than saddened, rly), there’s no way that’s more heartrending than Nagisa’s and Ushio’s deaths. And by the way, not to nitpick, but she’s Nagisa Okazaki, not Nagisa Furukawa. That was her name when she (temporarily) passed away because she was already married to Tomoya by then.

I’d also place Mami below Kyouko on the list. Her death was mostly shocking more than anything. Kyouko, on the other hand, had way more character development and sacrificed herself in the end, I found that to be much more depressing.

Can’t argue with the Clannad characters on top, but I think Misuzu from Air deserves a higher spot too.

What sacrifice? You knew in like the 5th episode that she was probably going to die by the end of Chrono Crusade. The way they explained the contract with her partner was pretty much a death flag. I even think she said during the series that she would probably only live to 30.

I was looking for Chrno Crusade, as well as Kenshin’s death in Reflections, and Takuto’s death in Full Moon wo Sagashite, those 2 are the only times I’ve ever cried over anime. But since those are apparently old they won’t appear here, as per usual.

Gotta second that. This list fails, as it usually does. I mean, why the fuck is Makoto Ito on that list when I’d say 99% of the show’s audience was relishing the agony of his death? There were no names from Hokuto no Ken, or Trigun, or Cowboy Bebop, and the deaths in those shows had way more emotional impact than any of the shows mentioned here.

Agreed, I was expecting hers to be on this list since it was one of the few that was actually shown- and pretty heartbreaking too. I didn’t care too much about the others, like the schoolmate that lost her boyfriend early on and took a soldier out.

Regardless, the moment it happened, that’s what that counts. Heck if you wanna go with that not counting death, Greed comes back so he doesn’t actually “die”. Also nobody in Angel Beats could die because they’re already dead in the first place.